Lise de la Salle Plays Ravel. Minnesota Orchestra. Thursday, April 27, 2017, 11 am Friday, April 28, 2017, 8 pm Saturday, April 29, 2017, 6 pm

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1 apr 27, 28, 29 Lise de la Salle Plays Ravel Minnesota Orchestra Ludovic Morlot, conductor Lise de la Salle, piano Thursday, April 27, 2017, 11 am Friday, April 28, 2017, 8 pm Saturday, April 29, 2017, 6 pm Today s concert will begin with Maurice Ravel s Suite of Five Pieces from Mother Goose, in place of Henri Dutilleux s Sounds, Space, Movement, as was originally scheduled. The remainder of the program is unchanged. A program note for Ravel s Mother Goose Suite appears below; turn to page 41 of Showcase for complete information about the program. Maurice Ravel Suite of Five Pieces from Mother Goose (Ma Mere l Oye) ca. 16 Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty Tom Thumb Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas Conversations of Beauty and the Beast The Enchanted Garden Maurice Ravel Born: March 7, 1875, Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, France Died: December 28, 1937, Paris, France Suite of Five Pieces from Mother Goose (Ma Mère l Oye) Premiered: January 28, 1912 ravel, a collector of miniatures, never lost his capacity for child-like wonder. Sometimes he masked his pleasure in toys and tales and the paraphernalia of the nursery behind young friends. Ma Mère l Oye, which we know as the Mother Goose Suite, originated as a set of five children s pieces for fourhand piano, a gift for the young Godebski children that Ravel composed between 1908 and In 1911 he transcribed it for the orchestra, whose colors added magic to the imagery. The original piano version was first performed on April 20, 1910, by two little girls, ages six and seven. One of them, Jeanne Leleu, later a Paris Conservatoire professor and composer in her own right, recalled that Ravel asked them to play very simply, without seeking expression in every note: He wanted the first piece, the Pavane, to be very slow for children that s quite difficult! He wanted Tom Thumb to be very uniform in sonority Laideronnette had to be very clear, like little crystal bells, without hurrying the melodic phrase in the bass. Drawing from Charles Perrault s Contes de ma Mère l Oye, originally published in 1697, Ravel also borrowed Perrault s title. The author s opening tale became the Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty, who is lulled by a gentle oscillating figure based on the ancient Aeolian mode; the music is so lightly scored that there is little risk of waking her. Tom Thumb, who discovers that the birds have eaten the crumbs he has strewn on his pathway, is evoked by constantly varying time signatures and the changing direction of the line, as he turns hither and thither in a frantic effort to retrace his steps. In Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas (not exotic buildings but tiny, insect-like creatures), the royal one is glimpsed in her bath, where she is serenaded by an orchestra of viols and lutes made of nutshells. Beauty and the Beast encounter each other in a dramatic waltz that contrasts the lyric charm of her voice, sweet in the clarinet, with his gruff responses, rumbling from the contrabassoon. The Enchanted Garden, so crystalline in texture that it might have been spun of glass, is capped by sparkling glissandos. Instrumentation: 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons (1 doubling contrabassoon), 2 horns, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, tamtam, triangle, xylophone, harp, celesta, keyboard glockenspiel and strings Program note by Eric Bromberger.

2 Lise de la Salle Plays Ravel apr 27, 28, 29 Minnesota Orchestra Ludovic Morlot, conductor Lise de la Salle, piano Thursday, April 27, 2017, 11 am Friday, April 28, 2017, 8 pm Saturday, April 29, 2017, 6 pm Ludovic Morlot s appearance is underwritten by a generous contribution from an anonymous donor to the Minnesota Orchestra s Investing in Inspiration campaign. Henri Dutilleux Sounds, Space, Movement (The Starry Night) ca. 19 I. Nébuleuse Interlude II. Constellations Maurice Ravel Concerto in G major for Piano and Orchestra ca. 21 Allegramente Adagio assai Presto Lise de la Salle, piano I N T E R M I S S I O N ca. 20 Sergei Prokofiev Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Opus 100 ca. 46 Andante Allegro marcato Adagio Allegro giocoso Minnesota Orchestra concerts are broadcast live on Friday evenings on stations of Classical Minnesota Public Radio, including KSJN 99.5 FM in the Twin Cities. APRIL

3 apr 27, 28, 29 Ludovic Morlot, conductor French conductor Ludovic Morlot, who makes his Minnesota Orchestra debut in these concerts, has been music director of the Seattle Symphony since During his tenure, the Seattle Symphony has won two Grammy Awards and earned acclaim for a performance at Carnegie Hall in He makes regular appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra. In Europe, he debuts this season with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in the closing concert of the prestigious Wien Modern festival, as Artists well as with the Netherlands Radio and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras. He has conducted the Royal Concertgebouw, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Czech Philharmonic, Tonhalle, Budapest Festival and Tokyo Philharmonic orchestras. In addition to his conducting posts, he is chair of orchestral conducting studies at the University of Washington School of Music in Seattle. More: ludovicmorlot.com. Lise de la Salle, piano Lise de la Salle first came to international attention in 2005 when, at age 16, she released a Bach and Liszt recording that was chosen as Recording of the Month by Gramophone magazine. These concerts mark her third appearance with the Minnesota Orchestra, following performances in 2008 and 2010 under Osmo Vänskä s direction. She has played with many of the world s leading orchestras, including recent performances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and with the Zurich Opera. Her most recent recording features five piano works by Rachmaninoff, performed with the Philharmonia Zurich and conductor Fabio Luisi. She has performed major recital series in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, and at the Philharmonie in Berlin, Wigmore Hall in London and the Louvre in Paris. She is an advocate for educational outreach and conducts master classes in many of the cities in which she performs. More: lisedelasalle.com. one-minute notes Dutilleux: Sounds, Space, Movement (The Starry Night) Dutilleux coupled his love for the mysteries found in van Gogh s famous painting, The Starry Night, with his own curiosities about light, clouds, stars and space, resulting in an emotive work with an unusual blend of voices: no violins or violas; fortified wind sections; and an abundance of deep, dark, low strings. Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major This popular work opens with a jazz-spiced movement highlighted by a bravura cadenza and proceeds into a serene, sparsely accompanied Adagio. In the mischievous Presto with which it concludes, the piano chases the orchestra. Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 The densely layered work is a monument to the composer s genius and heart: written in a single month during the last year of World War II, it speaks of humanism rather than cynicism or angst. Among its hallmarks: simple, almost singable themes that contrast with tumultuous developments, and brilliant scoring for winds and percussion. Memorable, too, is the grieving third movement, Adagio, whose quiet closing moments are among the most beautiful in the symphony. 42 SHOWCASE

4 Program Notes apr 27, 28, 29 Henri Dutilleux Born: January 22, 1916, Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France Died: May 22, 2013, Paris, France Sounds, Space, Movement (The Starry Night) Premiered: November 7, 1978 last year marked the centennial of Henri Dutilleux, and the French composer nearly made it to his celebration, having passed away just a few years earlier at age 97. Labels had always eluded him; upon his passing, The New York Times noted that his position in French music was proudly solitary. Between Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez in age, he was little affected by either...ravel, Roussel, Bartok and Stravinsky clearly mattered to him, as did big-band music. But his voice, marked by sensuously handled harmony and color, was his own. Dutilleux (pronounced doo-tee-yuh) trained at the Paris Conservatoire in the 1930s. After holding posts with the Paris Opéra and French Radio, he taught composition at the Ecole Normale de Musique, while remaining active in broadcasting. Many major orchestras commissioned him, including American ensembles such as the Boston Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra. In 2012, the year before he died, he was the inaugural recipient of the New York Philharmonic s Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music, which carried a $200,000 award. He generously shared it with three younger composers. Dutilleux was a good friend of Ludovic Morlot, the conductor of today s performance; the two often met for long conversations about music whenever Morlot was in France, and Morlot has become a champion of Dutilleux s works. from a canvas Paintings and other works of art have long inspired composers to evoke parallel images in sound. Modern composers, in particular, working with the enlarged and brilliant palette of the 20th- and 21st-century orchestra, which elevated the percussion to high rank, have responded ingeniously to art. But composers have generally been less concerned with recreating visual images in a fresh medium a futile task at best, for music by its nature is abstract as with evoking the poetic mood of what they have seen with their eyes. National Symphony Orchestra and its music director, Mstislav Rostropovich, and dedicated both to Rostropovich and to the memory of Charles Munch, another champion of Dutilleux s music. The work was first performed by the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on November 7, Dispensing with violins and violas, Dutilleux has assembled his own orchestra for this dreamlike work. The inner resonances emerge from polar opposites: lots of high woodwinds, especially piccolos, at one end of the spectrum, counterbalanced by the rich vibrations of cellos and basses often divided into multiple parts as many as nine. As a near contrast, the atmosphere carries the shimmer and glint of metallic percussion. the music In the first movement, the oboe d amore (pitched a minor third lower than the regular oboes) unfolds a sinuous line, blended polyphonically with clarinets; far below sounds the steady C-sharp of a single horn and trumpet, with low strings, as inexorable as the pull of gravity that keeps us from soaring off into space. Next comes a brief prologue to the closing movement, designated Interlude, which Dutilleux added in The final movement incorporates something of a solo counterpart in the form of a freely wrought and supple oboe passage, spun against the murk of brass and six cellos, tightly joined. The texture changes with kaleidoscopic ease in the quietly mysterious episodes and in the forceful climaxes. But always the listener feels solitary in this musical space. Consider van Gogh s painting as a backdrop to the provocative images that unfold across in a span little less than 20 minutes, wrought by constantly changing textures that pinpoint different timbres the way the rotation of the earth on a dark night brings myriad stars and planets into focus. The subject is nature, but nature distilled by the artist s vision, secondarily interpreted by the composer. In this music the listener feels his isolation in the universe. Not all is serene in its imagery. Violence and terror lurk in the black night. But the swelling bars of the close seem to produce constellations before us. Instrumentation: 4 flutes (1 doubling alto flute and 2 doubling piccolo), 3 oboes, oboe d amore, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, 2 suspended cymbals, 3 bongos, crotales, 3 tamtams, 3 tom-toms, glockenspiel, marimba, harp, celesta, cellos and basses Excerpted from a program note by Mary Ann Feldman For Dutilleux, the painting is van Gogh s The Starry Night. The work provided the subtitle of Dutilleux s piece, Sounds, Space, Movement (The Starry Night), which was commissioned by the APRIL

5 apr 27, 28, 29 Program Notes Maurice Ravel Born: March 7, 1875, Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, France Died: December 28, 1937, Paris, France Concerto in G major for Piano and Orchestra Premiered: January 14, 1932 ravel was 54 before he wrote any concertos, and then, in the fall of 1929, he set to work simultaneously on two. His Concerto for Piano Left Hand, dark and serious, was for the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, and the other, the much lighter Piano Concerto in G major, was intended for the composer s own use. But by the fall of 1931, when the G-major Concerto was complete, failing health prevented the composer from performing this music himself. Instead, he conducted the premiere in Paris on January 14, 1932; the pianist was Marguerite Long, to whom Ravel dedicated the concerto, and who had also given the first performance of Ravel s Le Tombeau de Couperin in brilliant, transparent and sultry Ravel described this work as written in the spirit of Mozart and Saint-Saëns, but listeners would hardly make those associations. What strikes audiences first are the concerto s virtuoso writing for both piano and orchestra, the brilliance and transparency of the music, and the influence of American jazz. It is possible to make too much of the jazz influence, but Ravel had heard jazz during his tour of America in 1928 and found much to admire. When asked about its influence on this concerto, he said: It includes some elements borrowed from jazz, but only in moderation. Ravel was quite proud of this music and said that in it, he had expressed his thoughts just as he had wished. allegramente. The first movement opens with a whipcrack, and immediately the piccolo plays the jaunty opening tune, picked up in turn by solo trumpet before the piano makes its sultry solo entrance. Some of the concerto s most brilliant music occurs in this movement, which is possessed of a sort of madcap energy, with great splashes of instrumental color, strident flutter-tonguing by the winds, string glissandos and a quasi-cadenza for the harp. adagio assai. In a three-minute solo that opens the Adagio assai, one of Ravel s most beautiful slow movements, the pianist lays out at length the haunting main theme, which later returns to great effect with the English horn heard over delicate piano accompaniment. Despite its seemingly easy flow of melody, this movement gave Ravel a great deal of trouble, and he later said that he wrote it two bars at a time. presto. The finale explodes to life with a five-note riff that recurs throughout, functioning somewhat like the ritornello of the Baroque concerto. The jazz influence shows up here in the squealing clarinets, brass smears and racing piano passages. The movement comes to a sizzling conclusion on the phrase with which it began. Instrumentation: solo piano with orchestra comprising flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, clarinet, E-flat clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, trombone, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, slap stick, tamtam, triangle, wood block, harp and strings Program note by Eric Bromberger Sergei Prokofiev Born: April 23, 1891, Sontsovka, Russia Died: March 5, 1953, Moscow, Russia Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Opus 100 Premiered: January 13, 1945 the premiere of Prokofiev s Fifth Symphony on January 13, 1945, in Moscow, was one of those storybook tales, almost too good to be true. As Prokofiev mounted the podium, the sound of distant artillery rumbled through the hall. The news had just arrived that the Russian army had smashed across the Vistula River in Poland and was preparing for its final assault on Nazi Germany. That artillery barrage was the sound of the garrison in Moscow celebrating the now-inevitable victory. And so it was that Prokofiev s Fifth Symphony was heard for the first time with a prelude of artillery thunder. with vision and force Prokofiev composed this music in the space of one month during the summer of 1944 in Ivanovo, at an artists retreat 150 miles northeast of Moscow. Like Stravinsky and Copland, Prokofiev was not by nature a symphonist, finding himself more comfortable with dance scores and smaller forms. Now, however in the face of a defining national moment Prokofiev turned to the most serious of orchestral forms and wrote with vision and force. The Fifth Symphony builds across an effective sequence in its four movements: a broad-scaled and conflicted first movement gives way to a propulsive scherzo, followed by a painful adagio; the symphony concludes with an almost happy-go-lucky finale that transforms themes from the first movement to suit its mood of celebration. The symphony s themes are simple, even singable, 44 SHOWCASE

6 Program Notes apr 27, 28, 29 its orchestration masterful. The combination of dramatic content, attractive themes, skillful orchestration and formal control makes this music almost unique among Prokofiev s works. the music andante. The very beginning is deceptively innocent: Prokofiev s Fifth Symphony opens with the pastel sound of two flutes and a bassoon playing the simple opening idea, and the other themes, all introduced quietly and lyrically, appear quickly. This movement is an andante rather than the expected allegro, but while the pace may be measured, it is also inexorable, and the music gathers force as it proceeds. In its closing moments, skies blacken over what had been a generally serene landscape, and the climax is shattering, one of the most impressive in all symphonic music: tunes that had seemed genial now explode as the strength pent up in those simple figures is unleashed. allegro marcato. The almost demonic ticking accompaniment heard at the very beginning of the second movement continues throughout so pervasive that the ear seems to hear it even when it is not there. Solo clarinet leads the way in this music, full of rhythmic energy and instrumental color, thanks to Prokofiev s imaginative handling of percussion. Oboe and clarinet herald the arrival of the good-natured trio, but the return of the opening material brings a surprise: over the halting sound of staccato trumpets, timpani and pizzicato strings, the opening theme now sounds lugubrious. Gradually the tempo accelerates, and the scherzo smashes its way to the close. adagio. While Prokofiev would not link this symphony with the war that raged while it was written, it is hard not to feel that the third movement is touched by the events of those years. This grieving music opens with a simple clarinet melody that quickly turns impassioned, and a range of melodic material follows, including a theme that rises up over a span of four octaves and a grotesque march that sounds like something plucked from a Mahler symphony. Much of the writing here, particularly for the strings, is very high, yet for all this movement s pain, its quiet closing moments are among the most beautiful in the symphony. ear-splitting rush up the scale that drives Prokofiev s Fifth Symphony to its exultant close. Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, wood block, snare drum, tambourine, suspended cymbal, tamtam, triangle, harp, piano and strings Program note by Eric Bromberger c da The Minnesota Orchestra s first performance of Dutilleux s Sounds, Space, Movement (The Starry Night) came on February 29, 1996, at the Ordway Performing Arts Center in St. Paul, with Yan Pascal Tortelier conducting. During the Orchestra s 114-year history, it has performed 15 concerts on February 29 Leap Days, in a total of seven cities, including Oil City, Pennsylvania (1916), St. Louis (1944), Tallahassee (1956), and Jamestown, New York (1960). On February 29, 2000, it performed at New York s Carnegie Hall under Eiji Oue s direction. The Orchestra gave its initial performance of Ravel s Piano Concerto in G on February 17, 1938, at Northrop Auditorium with Dimitri Mitropoulos in the dual roles of conductor and soloist. Today s soloist, Lise de la Salle, performed this same piece in her debut concerts at in September 2008, when she was just 20 years old. The Orchestra introduced Prokofiev s Fifth Symphony to its repertoire on March 14, 1947, at Northrop Memorial Auditorium, with Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting. Prokofiev was featured on the cover of Time magazine in November 1945, the same month as the Fifth Symphony s American premiere by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. allegro giocoso. The concluding finale is well named, for this truly is fast and happy music. Prokofiev re-introduces, transformed, several themes from the first movement the once-poised ideas now are rollicking. Violas lead the way, full of sweep and high spirits, and it takes little imagination to hear the sound of laughter at moments in this music of celebration. The ending is particularly effective. With the music racing along, Prokofiev suddenly reduces his forces to just a handful of players, and for a few moments this mighty symphony becomes chamber music. In the last seconds, the entire orchestra leaps back in for the APRIL